Hidden Honor

Hidden Honor (Mira) - Anne Stuart

3.5 stars. After reading and LOVING Lord of Danger, I was looking for another medieval romance by Anne Stuart and came across Hidden Honor. But this one didn't give me the same feeling as Lord of Danger, nowhere near it TBH. So there'll be no full review for this one.

Peter, our H, is a monk who went to Crusade. He was a normal knight before that, but now atoning for his sins done during Crusade. And for that reason he'd taken vows for the strictest order of monks he could find. It intrigued me to know that the H was a monk cause I don't think I read another book where the hero was one. Now Peter, alongside a coterie of King's men disguised as monks, were accompanying a bastard prince to a monastery to be cleaned off of his latest sins. Peter was disguised as the Prince himself, while the Prince was masquerading as one of the monks. This Prince really was quite a piece of work. A cruel, sadistic POS, his history with Peter during Crusade comes to life later in the story, which also explained why there was so much enmity between them which was palpable even to someone like our h, Elizabeth.

At any case, I liked Peter and thought he was a hot monk. He actually was a very sexually active man, but since his return from the Crusade he'd been celibate. On that one regard, I agreed with Elizabeth. But for the most part I could never connect with her. She was quite young and impulsive. But what frustrated me most about her was that, though I didn't think she was horribly dimwitted or something, most of the times her confidence was utterly misguided. Misplaced even. Which did make me facepalm a few times. It led to some contrived misunderstandings between her and Peter that could've been avoided otherwise IMO. It might have to do with the fact that she grew up largely sheltered and had no idea of the horrors that lay on the outside world. Whatever is the case, I had a difficult time with her and I thought she wasn't a good match for Peter. He needed someone more matured, even worldly. Maybe even someone like Dame Joanna.


With Joanna, comes the part of the story that I actually loved. It was the secondary romance between Joanna, who was a courtesan and Peter's cousin Adrian, who was a knight. He was one of the men accompanying the Prince and they met while staying at one of the castles where Joanna was the mistress to one of the lords. I really wished the author wrote more pages on them rather then Elizabeth's shenanigans. I still don't know why exactly Peter was so attracted to her. :/ I don't want to sound harsh but it must've been that aforementioned celibacy. -_-

Overall, though I liked the story because it kept me hooked, it wasn't a favorite of mine by Anne Stuart. But I'll continue to check through her backlist for my next favorite. :)